Sagrada Familia, Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família — even those who have never been to Barcelona know this name. Antonio Gaudí's unfinished creation cannot be confused with any other temple, and one cannot help but stop looking at the building's eccentric decor. All tourists strive to see the Sagrada Familia, but we also want the tour to be interesting for children. We will tell you what can interest young travellers by visiting this Barcelona landmark.
The first thing a child should pay attention to is that the temple is the idea of that same eccentric and genius Gaudi, who built gingerbread houses and a snake bench in Park Güell. The styles seem entirely different, but children often notice similarities: the spiers of the Sagrada de Familia are crowned with crosses decorated with the same coloured mosaics used in the Parc Güell.
If you want your child to learn more about the history of the temple's construction and its symbolism, rent a 40-minute audio guide for children 6-12 years old. Looking at the facades and interiors of the cathedral, the child will hear about the glorious idea of Gaudi, building materials, the method of creating jewellery from stone and glass, and much more. The audio guide for adults is designed for an hour-long excursion — perhaps later, the children will want to share what they heard with you and find out what they told you about.
But even without explaining, you can ask the child what the temple decor reminds him of. Some towers look like sand castles; others support columns resembling tense muscles. Still, others seem to make their way through the stone shoots of unusual plants, and in the fourth, it seems as if it is a cave with streaks of stalactites... Huge and unusually light vaulted rooms inside the temple are decorated with stained-glass windows. And it is worth raising your head — and it will seem as if the crowns of flowering stone trees have closed at the top. In this crown, windows are hidden through which the sun's rays penetrate.
You can get to the temple towers by elevator — from there you can see both the flat quarters of Eixample and the tangled streets of the Old City. Children under six are not allowed to get to the towers for safety reasons. In the evening, artistic lighting is turned on, giving the temple unearthly features.
In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The cathedral also houses a small museum dedicated to Gaudí's work on the construction of the Sagrada Família. Note that at any time of the year, there are huge queues of people who want to get into the temple and get to the observation deck.
